Ache for You
by seastarr08
Summary: Canon/AU: Instead of being saved in DAG, Sookie disappeared from Eric's life, but continued to haunt his dreams. Thirty years later, he starts to realize what it all means.
1. Ache for You

So I'm an absolute mental case, and decided to start a canon fic. I'm not sending out any spoilers, well, maybe I will, but I'm not giving anything away before its time. Anyway, thanks for reading, and let me know what you think. I'm not going to say that reviews make me write faster, but I do love your feedback!

The title is from a Ben Lee song, which is on my playlist. There's a link on my profile if you're interested.

Thanks to Missus T, for betaing, and to Svmaddict, for making sure I was treating Vlad right.

* * *

_This takes place during and after Dead and Gone, except, instead of Niall and Bill saving Sookie, they were a bit too late._

_The repercussions for Sookie's death were wide ranging. Victor Madden met the sun, for chaining Eric in silver, when he was charged with protecting Sookie for De Castro, Bill met the sun, because of the guilt he felt over involving Sookie in the supe world, and Eric and Pam were left spinning in the wake of everything. Every morning for three years, Eric stood at the door to his house, minutes before dawn, racked by guilt, but he always let Pam drag him back inside, just as the sun peeked over the horizon._

_Eventually, Pam and Eric left Louisiana, tired of living under De Castro's thumb; they made their way to New York, and then eventually Italy. After a time, both vampires stopped talking about their time in Louisiana, and instead focused on new pursuits**.** Pam ran a very profitable fashion line of high quality classic clothing designed for vampires, to stand the test of time, but coveted by humans, and Eric invested his earning from the sale of Fangtasia in Google, and lived the life of a playboy, seducing a series of women of noble blood, and living off his investments._

**30 years after Dead and Gone:**

"Who is she, Eric?" Sookie nodded at the aristocratic brunette to her left. "She's had your blood."

"Just a pet, Lover," I said, quietly. "What are you doing here?"

"Just thought I'd pop by and see how you are. If you're busy, I can come back. Well, maybe not." She gave me a small smile, before tracing my nose with her finger.

"I'd be better if you were alive, of course, but I'm well. And you? How is the great beyond?" I knew it was a dream, although a most realistic one. It was always a dream, and I'd wake at dusk, my head spinning, and the hole where our bond used to be, even larger than before.

"I don't want to talk about that." She rolled onto her back, wedging herself in perfectly, between me and Gilda, who was sleeping soundly, exhausted from an evening of fucking. She was a worthy partner, however, she lacked spunk. Moxie, Pam called it. To put it bluntly, she was boring. Loyal, and delicious, but boring. "Have you bonded with her?"

"No. I do not wish to be bound to her. She serves a purpose."

"Fast food?" She giggled, as I rolled over, and pinned her underneath me. "We don't have very long." Her face took on a somber appearance, as I ran my fingers through her hair, reacquainting myself with her features once again.

"We never do," I whispered, as she traced my fangs with her fingers. "But we always make the most of it."

"Did you love me?" She blinked a couple of times, her eyes glistening slightly.

I licked a tear out of the corner of her eye."Absolutely." I can taste her, although I know it's a dream.

"Gross, Eric." She shook her head. "I miss you. Even your obnoxious, high handedness."

"And I, you, even your stubborn, bossy self." I peeled off her grey Bon Temps Hawks shirt, and the short shorts Dream Sookie usually wore.

"And I miss your gracious plenty." She smiled, before moving her hands a bit lower, and squeezing my ass. "And my most favourite feature, of course."

"No gracious plentys in heaven?" I grazed my lips over her neck.

"I told you before, I don't want to talk about that," and then she nodded at Gilda. "Or that."

"Fine, fine." I rested my weight on her briefly, before flipping us over, so she was on top. I wanted to be able to use my hands as much as possible. "You're as beautiful as ever."

She blushed, slightly. "I guess I should be happy that you remember me like this . I'm like Marilyn Monroe, or James Dean. You remember me at my prime, and not like Elvis. None of the impossible issues that growing old would have meant for us, if we'd ever figured things out and had that talk. How is Bubba, anyway?"

"I have no idea." I hadn't seen Bubba in nearly three decades.

Waking up, after a dream was always odd. It was almost like I could smell her, even though the air was usually just heavy with the smell of sex from the night before. I didn't dream, not of much else, besides of her, and it wasn't all that often, maybe once a year. It was enough though, to keep her fresh in my mind, unlike so many of the other people that I'd crossed paths with over the centuries. Maybe I would have remembered anyway. I had only married two women in a thousand years, after all. I'd forgotten a lot of things about Aude, but Sookie lingered on.

I stretched, and pulled Gilda to my side, tucking her under my arm. She was incredibly beautiful, with her long wavy black hair, dark eyes, and full red lips. She looked almost like a princess from some sixteenth century fairy tale. We'd spent about two years together, and she was what most vampires desired in a companion. However, I prided myself on not being most vampires.

I cared for her though, in a way that was beneficial to both of us. As most parasites and hosts, we had a mutually beneficial relationship. I protected her, from nothing, and provided her with a lovely home, and incredible sex, and in turn, she fed me, almost exclusively. Once and a while, I'd eat out, but the majority of my feeding took place in my chambers, early in the morning.

After time, the guilt I'd been consumed with, after Sookie's death slowly dissipated. There was nothing I could have done. I sent her everything I had, through the bond, since my physical assistance was an impossibility. Feeling her life snuff out, was one of the most painful feelings of my long existence, and that very night, I swore I'd never again bond with another.

I'd just dressed for the evening, when I felt Pam approach. She stalked in, wearing the clothing of the time, which were rather similar to what Lady Gaga had worn thirty years earlier. Pants were very passé, for women. It was all short shorts, and mini dresses, so mini that really, they just showed off the short shorts. I wasn't complaining.

"Eric, where's your human?" Pam was not a Gilda fan. No one had really measured up, after Sookie. However, she bit her tongue now. Eternity was a long time to hold attachments.

"Showering."

"Is she accompanying you to Vlad's?" We had a weekly date with Dracula. Honestly, it was part of the reason I stayed in Italy. He was fascinating, and a wonderful host. I'd waited centuries to meet him.

"No." I'd told Gilda to stay in for the evening. She'd pouted a little, but like the good companion she was, soon enough she was curled up in front of the computer, playing some sort of online game. She barely looked up when I breezed past her.

We got into Pam's Ducatti, which was far too small for me, and arrived at Vlad's palace shortly thereafter, finding him sitting under the stars with a lovely blond catering to his whims. "Northman, and Pamela. Lovely to see you as always." He nodded at the blond, "Look what I found."

Pam purred at Vlad. She was enamored with him, slightly, probably from all my years of Dracula worship. "She's lovely."

"She's part fae." He raised an eyebrow. "I haven't seen one in nearly twenty years."

He was right. It had been a while. "Where are you from?" I smiled at her.

"Cleveland." She grinned. "I met Vlad in Hawaii."

"Do you know what you are?" I narrowed my eyes at her, trying not to be overwhelmed by her smell.

She curled up in Vlad's lap. "Kind of. I know when all the fae left, I was just a child, and my mother practically sold her soul to the Vampire king of Ohio to protect us, so I wouldn't have to go. My father was half fae."

"What's your name?"

"Corrina."

Vlad looked slightly irritated, with the attention I was paying his companion. "Pam, Eric, help yourself to whatever you'd like outside. Corrina and I will return shortly." He rose, tossing the petite blond over his shoulder, and went inside. A few moments later, a slew of attractive men and women wandered out into the courtyard.

Pam glanced at me. "He's going to hold onto her. You might as well give up now."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm not interested in a replacement. I was just curious."

"I'd like to taste her, but I doubt Vlad would allow it." Pam grinned, before selecting a feminine looking young man, and sinking her teeth into his neck.

I fed on a lovely redheaded woman , before making my way into Vlad's study. Corrina was gone, somewhere, but he smelled like her. I sat down across from him. "You looked like you'd seen a ghost when you saw my new friend."

"I had a part-fae once, decades ago. I was just taken back there, for a minute."

Vlad nodded. "I remember tales of the brave Ms. Stackhouse, from Rhodes. It's a shame. The fae are such animals, and they have the nerve to think us savages."

I shrugged. "It doesn't much matter. She'd be nearly sixty now, and probably married to the shifter that she used to work for. They'd probably have had a couple of puppies, or whatever they have, and she'd make cookies on the weekend. She never wanted to be turned. It was only a matter of time, and even if she'd been willing, you know how child and maker relationships are. They're never romantic for long."

"I may turn Corrina. I haven't turned anyone in three hundred years." He glanced out into the courtyard. "She reminds me of Pam."

"Pam is a good companion, although a bit petulant at times. I don't regret turning her."

"Corrina is well adjusted to our ways. Her mother was the king's consort for many years. I think she is worthy."

Time went on, as it always did, slow and steady. I fed, fucked, and fed some more, attended a couple of fashion shows with Pam, and even modelled her new spring line for her in her runway show. Gilda had come along, and gotten quite jealous at the amount of female companionship I'd received. It was the most passionate I'd seen her about anything, in ages. She'd possessed me in a way I didn't think she was capable of that night. I'd thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was three weeks later, when I found myself alone with Corrina. Vlad had vanished, off with some other woman, and she sat across from me, frustrated, drinking a glass of red wine. "You vampires have no concept of monogamy."

"It doesn't really have a place when you live forever. Perhaps you'll find out someday."

She raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps. Tell me about yourself."

I went on to tell her as much as I wanted to share, the cliffnotes of a thousand years of existence. She listened, slightly engaged, part of her mind still on Vlad, and whatever he was doing. After I'd described my decade in New York, and then Italy, I asked her a question. "Did you know your father?"

"Yes. I remember bits and pieces of him. He left, when the others did, and went back to Faerie." She looked around, and leaned across the table. "I still see him though."

Great. She was nuts. I humoured her. The door was long closed. "Oh yea?"

She nodded. "It was him that told me to seek out Vlad. I see him in my dreams, every so often."


	2. Bixby Canyon Bridge

**Holy shit. You guys rocked it with the review love. It's Canadian Thanksgiving weekend here, and to show my thanks for you, my very wonderful readers, here's another chapter. I'm making no promises about anything, but I think you'll like what I have planned, eventually.**

**I decided to do song titles again and I made a playlist for them. If you're interested, check them out here: **

www(DOT)playlist(DOT)com/playlist/20798585867

**Thanks to Missus T for her speedy and awesome beta work! **

* * *

**60 years after Dead and Gone**

I stepped into the shower, and found Sookie already there, lathered and soapy. She turned around to face me, with a wicked look in her eye. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm having some serious deja vu here."

I felt my fangs drop, even though it was a dream. I wondered if they were out in reality. "Indeed. Turn around, Lover."

With a shrug, and wink, she obliged me. "I'm not scared of you anymore."

I grabbed the soap out of her hand, and began to slowly lather the soap in my hands, before running my hands over her back, along her sides. She whimpered, softly, as my fingers, which somehow, after all this time, remembered the curves of her body, covered every inch of her with suds. I didn't remember my birthday, or my mother's real name, but I remembered those curves, somehow soft, but firm, and the tan lines left behind from summers in the sunlight. I remembered the smell of the light on her skin at various times when I'd known her, and the way she glowed, which was completely different than my glow. She was warm, to my cool. "I'm still terrified of you, but don't tell anyone."

I had so many questions I wanted to ask, answers I needed from her, but I was never able to. It was like there was some sort of living in the moment rule, when it came to our dreams. No talk of the present, only of the past, and the moments we'd shared, which were few, but meaningful. "Why are you scared of me?" She cocked her head, slightly, before looking over her shoulder at me.

"Because I don't understand what this is." I grabbed the shampoo and ran my fingers through her wet hair, before lathering it up, smiling slightly at the memory of a far more real shower.

"It's just you and I. Here. Now. That's all." She leaned her head back, as I scratched her scalp. "That feels nice."

She turned around, and stepped under the spray of the shower head to rinse the shampoo out of her hair**. **Then she turned her attentions to me, picking up the soap from the dish, and lathering it, before running her hands over my arms, and chest, and eventually lower. I closed my eyes, and exhaled a unnecessary breath, as she wrapped her hand around me. "I wish I'd had more time, before the curse ended."

She looked up at me, her blue eyes glistening. "I wonder if things would have been different."

I shook my head. "Probably not. I would have still been me, and you would have still been you."

We rinsed off, and I grabbed a towel from her old bathroom, and wrapped it around her, before I secured one around myself. Her old bathroom, of course, looked as it always did, even though I knew the house had been burned, ironically enough, by Bill, as he met the sun on her front porch all those years ago. She wrapped her hand around mine, and l followed her into her old room. Once again, we tussled with the covers, and eventually settled underneath a blanket that I was certain that some ancestor of hers had made. She slid underneath me, and we fit together like we always had, perfectly, our matching hair covering the old feather pillows. Everything was familiar in a way, but also new and different every time we were together like this. Which wasn't as frequently as it used to be. I'd almost forgotten what the curve of her hips looked like, the way her mouth felt on mine, and then everything would come rushing back.

I rolled off of her, thinking for a minute how long this dream was lasting. It seemed longer than usual, and usually she just appeared where I was. She laid her head on my chest, and placed her hand over the place where my heart used to beat. "Everyone I know is dead now," She whispered, into my chest. "Except you." There were others, I was certain, vampires she'd known, but I knew what she meant. We didn't have a family bond, but the bond we had was akin to it, in a parallel way.

"That's a reality I've been living with for years, Lover. Present company included."

She sighed, remembering her life, I figured. "And Pam. How's Pam?"

"We went our separate ways about ten years ago. She's living in England." I was in northern Sweden, which was kind of ironic. We'd both gone home, in a sense.

"Are you happy?"

"I'm alive, well, I'm not finally dead, and I have lots of money, and women, so I suppose so." Living forever did get tedious, at times, but I'd never been one to dwell on that. "Are you happy, or at peace, or whatever humans are, when they die?" I'd been trying to get her to tell me, for decades, under no uncertain terms, that she was actually dead. Vlad's fae child, and her mention of her fae father in her dreams had struck a chord with me, for some reason, and I'd never seen a body, just Compton's ramblings of her terribly mutilated corpse, and Niall insisting on a closed casket. At the time, I'd been so caught up in my own grief that I'd accepted the answers I'd been given, but I'd never had dreams that were so vivid. Not in a thousand years, and now they were only of her.

"I'm fine." Was her response, and with that, I felt the pull of day dissipate, and my body slowly woke up. She was gone for another night, and I was left, having no idea when I'd be able to ask again.

Life in Northern Sweden, was isolated, solitary, and just what I needed, for a few decades. The technology of the modern world was, at times, somewhat overwhelming, even for the humans. I'd built myself a huge home, and entertained quite often. I'd gained a bit of a reputation as a playboy in Italy, so it was nice to be able to recreate myself into a similar version of myself that I'd been in Louisiana. I bought a small bar, and during the winters, when the nights were long, I'd get a slew of vampires in, all looking to gain a few more hours of immortality.

It was a dark afternoon, sometime in December, when in walked Corrina, Vlad's child. Without Vlad. I got up from my throne, and approached her. She was beautiful, as a vampire, and she had retained a bit of her colouring, as she'd been quite tanned when he turned her about twenty years ago. She still smelled of fae and still had those huge green eyes, that she'd always had. She was pointlessly bundled up in a massive down coat, and I wondered where her maker was. "Corrina."

She grinned, broadly. "Eric Northman. I'd heard you were roughing it, but this is absurd."

I looked past her, out the door. "Where's Vlad?"

"In Italy. I came for you. To see you." Her eyes glanced down, and then she looked me right in the eye. "You look good."

I nodded at my booth. "Sit." I had no idea why she was here, or what she wanted from me. It was nice to see a familiar face though, and she sat across from me, a determined look on her beautiful face. "What can I do for you?"

"I need to know everything you know about the fae."

I tapped the table impatiently. I didn't need to rehash any of this. "You probably know more than I do."

"I don't know nearly enough. I think something's wrong though. I haven't dreamt of my father in nearly five years." She leaned in across the table. "What about your fae?"

I'd told Corrina everything, one night, about losing Sookie, my guilt, and the dreams. I wasn't sure why I'd revealed so much of myself, to someone I hardly knew, but I did. And she'd been a wonderful listener, as parts of my story reminded me of her own. "I don't think our dreams are the same. Sookie is dead." I could tell myself that, as much as I wanted, but I didn't believe it, not most of the time. What she was, I was unsure, but I was fairly certain that she wasn't dead.

"I don't think she is. I remember you describing your dreams, before I was turned, and it was the same for me. I never dreamed, really, unless it was of him. And they were so vivid."

"I dreamt of her three months ago. In a different setting though, her old home. Usually she is wherever I am."

"I think it all means something. You know, I'm the only one of my kind I've met in decades, living or undead. I think all the fae are gone."

"Perhaps. I know that there were some issues, some factions that were not in favour of the human and fae breeding. That was what happened to my...er, Sookie. She was uncovered, and killed, because of her mixed heritage. You were lucky that your mother was intelligent enough to swear fealty to a powerful vampire."

"Who decided I was his at fifteen, after he'd cast my mother out? I don't call that luck." She crossed her arms. "I hate vampire politics. There are very few honourable vampires around, Vlad being one of them," Her hand moved across the table, and gripped mine, in a very human way. "And you being another."

"What do you want me to do?"

She shrugged. "Next time you see her, ask the questions. Ask if there's a war, if things are okay with the ones that left. She might be unable to tell you everything; Dad was like that sometimes, but have her write it down. I think it's some sort of spell. There are certain things they can't say, but they can write. I'm no longer fae, in the strictest sense of being, but they're my ancestry. I'd help in someway if something was wrong, if I could. I just have a bad feeling about my father."

I nodded. That was an interesting tidbit. Something to try, anyway, if given the opportunity. "I will try."

She looked down at my chest, before bringing her eyes up to meet mine. "Vlad and I have gone our separate ways, for a time."

"I thought as much."

"I thought, perhaps, I could stay with you, for a time. I need to become my own vampire, but Italy is too overwhelming."

I nodded. "That would be acceptable. My home is about six miles from here."

I was interested to discover that she could fly, and a few minutes later, we stomped in the front door of my house, kicking the snow from my boots.

I'd hadn't taken a vampire, or a blond, as a lover for decades, but I found myself drawn to her, and as I started a fire, I felt her eyes on me. "Vlad knows I'm here," She said, as she sat down on my couch, running her toes through my bearskin rug. "And he doesn't mind."

"Then I would be honoured." I gave her a small smile.

She stayed for about six years, until Vlad called her back. I wasn't sure it was the end of us, however, but it was for the time being. She was very young, and I was not about to interfere with Vlad's claim. I dreamt of Sookie twice, while Corrina stayed with me, but I was unable to find a pen in either dream. It was almost a lesson in torture, spending my dream time looking for writing implements, but Sookie humoured me, both times, and, perhaps because the nights were long, we still had time to explore one another, in the end. When Corrina left, the nights became unbearably long, and I plotted my next step. This time, I decided to travel to the South Pacific, over land, and see a continent that I hadn't explored for over five hundred years.

I stopped for the day in Istanbul and when I woke for the evening, I was approached by a woman with the clearest eyes. She was blind, I soon determined, and when she took my hand and led me into her shop, I realized that I was probably getting taken. "You are very old."

I nodded. "Ancient, some even say."

"And you are bonded. Not many are bonded."

I leaned back in my chair. "The one whom I had the bond with, is dead."

"You are mistaken." Her eyes widened. "She is very much alive. I can sense her with you."

"Where is she?" I figured I might as well ask, although I doubted this old human would be able to give me any information that I didn't already have.

"Somewhere else."

"Great, thanks for the help." I stood up, leaving a pile of change on the table. I was a skeptic of such things, and with good cause, as in one thousand years, I'd never seen anything especially impressive, from a psychic.

"Sookie," She said, in a whispered tone. "She still cares for you, very much."

I sat back down. "How can I reach her?"

"I don't know." She looked down at her hands. "There are many obstacles."

"Thanks." I got back up, and left. As useless as that was, in an odd way, it was reassuring to know that I wasn't the only one that felt something. If I really focused on it, the bond was still buzzing away. It had never stopped, just felt like it was a million miles away.

When I got to New Delhi, I began researching, and reading everything I could about the fae. There was little I didn't know, which wasn't surprising, since they were such a secretive race of beings. It was irritating.

Pam met me in Sydney, Australia, after I'd been there for a couple of months. She immediately noticed the huge stack of fae related notes I'd made "You just need to let her go, Eric. It's been sixty years. You only knew her for three. This is ridiculous."

I shrugged. "At worst, it gives me a purpose. At best, she may still be out there."

"And what if she is? She's just been booty calling your dreams? That seems a bit absurd."

"It's never just that. We talk, too."

"Whatever, Eric. Get over it. She was just a bloodbag."

I felt something in me snap, and I was completely unprepared for it. I slammed Pam up against the wall. "That bloodbag was my wife, and a friend to you. Did you ever think that the only person that saw her corpse was Compton? And we just took his word? This reeks of fae." I dropped her, and snorted, as she adjusted her lapels, and rolled her eyes at me.

"Fine, Eric. Keep doing your research, and wasting your eternity on some wild human chase. It's your time to kill. Your life."

It was my life, and I couldn't help but feeling like I'd been robbed of something that I had in abundance. Time. Time to make things right with Sookie. I wouldn't stop until I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'd lost my chance.

* * *

**A couple of things of note: I'm cohosting an AH contest for newbies and AH newbies! Check it out! www(DOT)fanfiction(DOT)net/u/2507718/A_New_Chapter_Contest**

**I also have a blog now, and I'm planning to start posting some original fiction, which I'd be ever so grateful if you checked out in a couple of weeks. The link to my blog is on my profile page, and The Expert is hosted there exclusively now. It also includes some rambling and ranting from me, so if you're interested, check it out!**


	3. I Miss You

**All I can say is WOW. Thanks so much for all the review love, really, you've rocked my mind and my inbox with your wonderful notes and support! I've been a bit fail with responding to reviews, because I've been writing, writing, writing, but if you have a specific question about the timeline, or something besides WTF, I will totally respond!**

**Thanks to Missus T, who fixes my stuff up and makes it shiny grammatically, and tells me when I've left out something major, and to tvgirlsvm, sallydoodleff, and svmaddict, for their mad pre-reading support. Honestly, writing canon makes me a bit spleeny, since I've been an AH girl for so very long, but their support and encouragement has been amazing!**

**Enough rambling...on with the show.**

* * *

**90 years after Dead and Gone**

I sat in my throne at Fangtasia, feeling as unfulfilled as I had when I used to do it, for real, not just in my dreams. In she walked, wearing that vampire bait red and white dress, the one she'd worn on the first night, when she'd come in with Compton. Just as then, she sat in a booth, and watched me for a while, and then, with the flick of my wrist, I summoned her.

She sat in the smaller chair by my side, her face tense. "Eric, I need your help."

"Deja vu, again? What are we finding this time, Lover? More dead fangbangers?" I grinned, brushing my fingers against her face.

She pulled away from me, and shook her head. "I know, that you know. It's a dream. Of course you know. I make up the rules."

I raised my eyebrows. Were we actually getting somewhere? "Let's go to my office, shall we?"

She nodded, and followed me into the dank pit, where I'd once spent so much time. I watched as she opened and closed her mouth a few times, unable to speak. I quickly found a pen and paper, and handed it to her. "Write it down."

She gasped, as she was easily able to write everything she wanted to say on the legal pad I'd handed her, and I watched, from the other side of the desk, as she wrote, for ages, as an endless stream of tears ran down her face. Finally, she ripped the page out, folded it in half, and handed it over. "Don't read it out loud. They might hear."

I nodded, carefully unfolding the paper, my worst fear being that it would dissolve in my hands, or something, when I held it. It didn't though, and her words hit me, right in the gut, like a silver stake.

_I'm in Faerie. It's hell, and I need to get out. It's the same thing, as last time, with the bloodline war, and I'm still not fae enough. There are lots of us though, and we're trying to get back to where we were taken from, away from the full-blood fae. They won't let us leave. We're practically slaves. _

_Help me._

"How?"

She shrugged, a sad little shrug. "I don't know. It's not as though it's really you, but I just hoped, you know, that maybe you'd be able to tell me what to do. I should have listened to you before, and stayed with you, when you asked." Clearly I wasn't the only one that still had some residual guilt from that night.

I grabbed the pad, and wrote her a note.

_It is really me. Is it really you?_

Her eyes narrowed, as she examined my face, and nodded. "Yes."

I wrote some more.

_How can I know, for sure?_

She bit her lip, thinking hard, trying to pull out something that would distinguish her from my memories. She grabbed the pad.

_You never saw these. _

She stood, and pulled her dress up, over her hip, revealing a series of crescent-shaped scars, presumably from that night, when I'd lost her. I'd never seen them, in other dreams. "We're in the now, somehow."

"How?"

She shrugged. "I have no idea. Maybe we always were. I think we just figured it out."

"Why weren't they there before?" I knelt down beside her, running my fingers over them. They were, as Compton had described them, appalling, and they looked to be incredibly painful.

"They weren't a part of us. Only me. How do I know about you?"

I thought about it. "I don't have any scars to show you."

"Obviously." She gave me a half smile. "Riddle me this. In the beginning, in Dallas, and with the orgy, did you actually care for me, or was it more about taking me from Bill?"

"Taking you from Bill."

She looked hurt, for a split second, and then nodded. "I think I always knew that, but I don't think you would have said that in my dreams."

That made sense, as much as anything did, in a dream. "How do I help?"

She shook her head, grabbing the pad.

_I don't know how this works. Who is in control? Don't say too much. They could be listening. _

I nodded. She was either paranoid, or the fae had done a real number on her. "Well, this isn't very useful then."

"That's probably why we usually just fuck." She winked.

I grabbed the pad again.

_You need to open the door._

She sighed, her shoulders slumped. "Can't."

"Someone can."

She shook her head. "He's unwilling." Niall.

"Why?"

She grabbed the pad.

_Because it would start a war. An even worse one. He's weak, now._

This was a lot of information to process. I groaned, as I felt myself being jerked out of sleep. "I have to go."

"Don't," She squeaked. "Tell me what to do."

"I'll see what I can find. Come back again."

"I don't decide when."

"I don't either." I reached across the table, and grabbed her hand, just as I was awoken by Pam, poking at me. I opened an eye and glared at her, before looking at my bedroom in Sydney, and feeling a bit irritated about being there. "You have great fucking timing, you know that?"

"I heard you, from the other room. It's 10 p.m. You were doing lots of 'oh Sookies'. She sat on my bed, and shook her head. "It's really time you move on."

I understood that she was concerned, but she'd never been in a situation like this. Pam never formed attachments, and in a lot of ways, that was what made her a perfect vampire.

"Fuck you. I think she's really alive, well, she's something, and in Faerie."

"Didn't you always think that?" She cocked her head at me.

"I wasn't so sure, but I am now. We need to find Corrina."

Two months later, I sat at Vlad's huge dining room table. "If you've come back for her, you can't have her." He looked up, nonplussed, his dark hair over his eyes, slightly.

"That's fine. I have some issues to discuss with her, regarding the fae."

He sighed, leaning back in his chair. "You really want to drag that all up again? She's finally just let it go."

"If Sookie is out there, I need to find her."

He nodded, a solemn look on his face, as he tugged at his long dark hair. "Have I ever told you about when I was turned?"

My inner fanboy, as Pam would have said, was ecstatic, at the idea of hearing something so personal from such a great vampire, but I played it cool. "No."

"Like so many, I was turned on the battlefield. It was near dawn, and my maker, quickly dragged me off the field, but my men saw me fall, and my wife was told. She threw herself off a cliff, before I could explain what had happened. It was many years before I came to terms with that guilt. I tried to meet the sun many times. Don't let this hunt for Sookie be your only reason for living. There has to be more than guilt."

He was right. "If it was only the guilt, I think I would have let go of it long ago, but I dream of her, and they aren't normal dreams. They're in colour, and I remember every word when I wake up. Corrina has had the same dreams, of her father."

Vlad nodded. "I am aware of these dreams, and they have certainly influenced her life in many ways. I knew her father, for a time, many years ago."

"She said that it was him that directed her towards you."

He chuckled. "Given her situation when we met, I wouldn't be surprised if he did. The king of Ohio had just discarded her mother, and was planning to bond with her. She despised him. He was very inappropriate with her, when she was young."

I'd heard the stories. If I wasn't so uninterested in North American politics, I would have staked him myself. As the king, he had no need to take liberties with a young girl. There were plenty of willing donors. "Do you think he intended for you to turn her?"

He shrugged. "I think he intended for me to protect her. However, turning her was the only way to do that, really. Her ties to Ohio were quite strong, and as you know, the child maker bond overrides everything. She can take care of herself now."

"Where is she?"

"I've called her. She should be here by tomorrow evening. I'm not sure what you expect from her though. She hasn't dreamed of her father in decades."

I wasn't really sure what I expected, either. "I'm hoping she can think of something."

Vlad narrowed his eyes at me. It was the first time I'd received any ill will from him, and despite him being younger than me, I could feel his strength. "You'll not lay with her here. She is mine."

I nodded. "That's understood."

His face transformed and relaxed. "Good. Now that that's settled, let's go have a drink, shall we?"

When Corrina arrived the next evening, Vlad took his leave. "I trust you'll behave?" He said, kissing her tenderly on her way out.

She nodded. "Of course."

It was after he had left, that she leaned across the table. "We've decided to attempt to be exclusive, besides feeding, of course."

"Interesting." I smiled across the table at her. "I won't interfere."

She winked. "We'll see how long it lasts. I'm sure I'll be beating down your door in a hundred years or so." She leaned back, hooking her arms around the back of the chair. "So, what are you here for?"

"I talked to her, in a dream, a couple of months ago, and I had her write down what she couldn't say. I think you were right, there are problems in Faerie."

Her eyes went wide. "I knew it. Tell me everything."

I did, and she nodded along. "And then Pam woke me up. I'd been asleep for part of the night as well."

"Have you seen her since?"

I shook my head. "And I have no idea how to help her." I hated feeling so powerless. It was kind of like that night, all over again. "Maybe we should consult with a witch."

She snorted. "Have you ever known a witch that was able to override Fae magic?"

She had a point. "Is there anyone?"

"I don't know. I've thought about this a lot. Did you ever know of a door? I know there's one in Ohio."

"There's one in Shreveport, well Bon Temps, where Sookie was from. Near her old house." That was how all this had begun, with her damn halfie grandfather, although I knew that without him, she wouldn't have been the Sookie I knew. The Fae were irritating, but she was part of that.

Corrina nodded in agreement. Her gestures were still so very human at times. "So maybe we try and pry it open."

Good plan, however, it was flawed. "With what?"

"Ah yes. That's the problem." She tapped her chin. "Did you ever see the door?"

I shook my head. "No. But it was in the woods." I hadn't even considered going back and checking there, but then again, I didn't have much interest in visiting Bon Temps once Sookie was gone. "We could go look for it."

"I don't know what else we'd do." She had a point. "It's worth a try anyway. They are doors, after all. There must be some way to open them. They're just closed."

A month later, and after some very heavy promises to Vlad to keep my hands to myself, Corrina and I landed in Shreveport at dusk, which, after nearly a century, hadn't changed much at all. Sure, technology had taken over, but a lot of human efforts had been funnelled into maintaining the environment, so they would be able to survive, as a species. There were a lot more trees, everywhere. Corrina glanced around, as we walked into the much expanded Fangtasia, which was now run by Thalia. "This place is a real dive," She whispered.

"She hasn't done a lot of upkeep." And she hadn't. The same tacky vampire shit was all over the walls, and it was filled with the same pathetic fangbangers. Different faces, with the same purpose. "We won't stay long."

"Thank God."

After a brief meeting with Thalia, about the state of things in the area, which was, oddly enough, quite peaceful. We checked into a vampire hotel, and then flew out to Bon Temps. Corrina had inherited Vlad's gift of flight, but not his fire hands, which was probably a better talent to inherit. We'd had a lot of fun for a time, flying here and there, watching the Northern Lights over Sweden. I shook my head as we landed at Sookie's family home, which was now just a foundation, with a lot of rubble. "I should have repaired it. Compton, the vampire that burned it down, did so much damage though."

"You didn't need to hold on to her in that way. It was only a house."

With a ratty afghan, a squeaky bed, and a shower that was burned into my mind for all eternity. "I suppose so. Now what?"

"I guess we go looking and see what we can find."

It turned out, we found more than we were expecting.

* * *

**A couple of things of note: I'm cohosting an AH contest for newbies and AH newbies! Check it out! www(DOT)fanfiction(DOT)net/u/2507718/A_New_Chapter_Contest**

**I also have a blog now, and I'm planning to start posting some original fiction, which I'd be ever so grateful if you checked out in a couple of weeks. The link to my blog is on my profile page, and The Expert is hosted there exclusively now. It also includes some rambling and ranting from me, so if you're interested, check it out!**


	4. Love Her Madly

**Holy crap! Fanfiction dot net is alive! So, since it's tomorrow here, I thought I'd post the next chapter. Thanks so much for the mad mad love you're giving this fic. I really do appreciate all your little comments and thoughts on where this is going, and while some of you have had some good predictions, I don't think anyone has gotten it 100%. Keep guessing though!**

**Thanks to Missus T, for keeping this thing going...she's a beta machine!**

* * *

We tramped through the woods for about an hour, before Corinna dropped to the ground, her hands over her mouth. "We fucking found it," she choked out when she was finally able to speak.

"What are you talking about?" I looked around. I couldn't see anything besides trees, and forest, and the moon, through the trees and forest.

"It's a literal door." She shook her head. "Seriously? You can't see it?"

I shook my head. Maybe she was a bit nutty. I'd always given her the benefit of the doubt. "No."

Slightly exasperated, she grabbed my hand, and my eyes went wide, as she took it and ran it along the frame of a door and over the knob. "See?"

I'd never seen anything like this. Obviously, because I wasn't Fae. And I still couldn't see it, but I could certainly feel it. "Shit."

And then the rattling started. To anyone else, that didn't know there was a door there it would have sounded like the wind, or some wild animal. But it was definitely something trying to get out. Corrina's eyes went wide.

"Do we try and open it? It sounds like someone's trying to get out. We have to open it." It was times like this that her age really showed.

"No. I don't know. It depends on who is trying to get out." It could have been any number of things, from any number of realms. All the things, from other places, were known to share doors.

"How will we know? What if it's my dad, or your Sookie?"

"I don't know what to do." And I didn't.

We sat there on the ground for a while, looking at one another and at the door. Finally, Corrina had had enough. "This is crazy. I'm going to try and open it."

She pulled herself up, and I grabbed her arm. "Let's not rush into anything here. We need some iron on hand first, at least. Maybe some lemons."

She sighed. "But it's almost dawn. We don't have time to get all those things."

"Then we'll come back tomorrow. We need to go to ground."

"Ground?" She wrinkled up her nose. New vampires knew nothing of sleeping in the ground. "I'm not sleeping in the ground. This dress cost nearly a million dollars."

Fucking inflation. Vlad was right though, she was more like Pam than I'd initially thought. "Take it off. We don't have time to get back to the vampire hotel in Shreveport."

She sighed. "Fine."

"I'll even dig you a hole, gentleman that I am." I winked, as I created a hole big enough for both of us, and gestured to her. "Ladies first."

She sighed. "Vlad's not going to like this."

"Vlad's not going to care, if it means you aren't going to meet the sun."

She jumped in. "Fine. Get in then, and let's get this over with."

"There was a time, not long ago, when you didn't mind sharing my bed." I winked at her as I covered us up.

"I know, and believe me, it would be no hardship now, save for our little arrangement."

She fell asleep first, and I pulled her to my chest once she was out for the night.

The next dusk, we dug ourselves out, and went to Shreveport to pick up an arsenal of Fae fighting tools. A dozen lemons, every garden trowel we could find, and some iron nails. And then we realized that we couldn't open the fucking door.

"It's magic. I can feel it," Corinna grunted, as we pulled and pulled.

"I guess we should have known." I leaned back, after I realized that we weren't getting anywhere.

"Now what?"

I shrugged. "I guess we wait until someone opens it."

**100 years after Dead and Gone**

"Eric, what the fuck?" Pam stalked in and looked around. "You rebuilt her fucking house?"

I shrugged. "I built a house, here. There was already a foundation. I told you about the door."

"Oh, this looks an awful lot like her house," She walked into the kitchen. "Only nicer. You have far better taste."

"Thalia helped, in exchange for my enthralling the vermin at Fangtasia, or as she calls it the Blood Bank, once a week." She could have made me do it, since she was sheriff now, but she didn't force it. True, the floor plan of the house was as I remembered it, but I couldn't bear the thought of paying for antique southern shabby chic shit. It was a compromise. I wasn't dreaming of her any more often than I had, but it still felt better, being on somewhat sacred ground to her. Lately, when I dreamt of her, we spent a great deal of time brainstorming, sometimes about how the hell to get her out of Faerie, and sometimes about ridiculous things, like how to bring Bill back from the dead. Stupid dreams. No sex. Ever. It was probably for the best. I didn't need dream sex. I could just have real sex.

"So what are you waiting for? Her to show up, so you can play house?"

I shrugged. "I don't even know if she's really over there. I feel better though being here, and that's all that matters."

"You're happy, being the guardian of the door to somewhere." She looked at me, deadpan. "Wow."

"What else would I be doing?" It wasn't so bad. I had lots of company, and I enjoyed being solitary from time to time. I felt at peace in a way, being here. "We liked living here."

"You liked living here. I despised it and you for making me come."

"That's bullshit, and you know it." I got her in a headlock, and she sighed, exasperated.

"I'm not staying long." She dropped her enormous suitcase by the door. "Los Angeles calls."

"I paved the driveway. And built a fence between here, and Compton's house." Looking at how it had ended up, an absolute dump, it was almost better that Sookie's place had burned down. It was a mess, with holes in the roof, and any number of animals calling it home.

"So you made it how you would have wanted it, when she lived here. I see you bought a corvette."

"I needed a car." I sat down, on the black leather couch. "It's electric."

"Fancy." She rolled her eyes. "Are you still in the hidey hole?"

I snorted. Although I had rebuilt the hidey hole, for visitors that I didn't care for, like Clancy, I certainly didn't sleep there. "Come on. I'll show you the basement."

She stepped out of her shoes, and followed me down the hardwood stairs into what Thalia had taken to calling my batcave. She glanced around, a bit more impressed. "This is more like you."

"Your room is over there."

"I have my own room?"

"Of course." I smiled. "Here's the door surveillance." I nodded at a series of monitors, which were kept in a little room off the living space.

"Thrilling." She raised an eyebrow. "Are we going to Fangtasia tonight?"

"I told Thalia we would. You're quite a draw. She put up posters."

Pam smiled broadly. "Then let's not keep my public waiting."

After two hours of eye rolling and kicking vermin with her six inch heels, Pam looked at Thalia. "How the hell have you done this for so long? Thank God we left."

She shrugged. "I take lots of vacations." Pam and I laughed, as Thalia put a wall of a man, who bore an uncanny resemblance to John Quinn, in his place, by knocking him down, and pouring a bottle of beer all over him. "You'll pay for that too, and tip your waitress." She stood up, smiling. "You're on your way then?"

I looked at Pam, who nodded eagerly. "Yea, I think we are." We'd both fed on Shreveport's finest, which wasn't so fine. "I'll be by on Thursday."

She nodded. "Fine. Until then."

Pam and I got into the Corvette, and it wasn't until we turned the bend at Hummingbird Road that she spoke. "I'm worried about you, getting all tangled up in the past."

"I'm fine Pam. When I'm not, I'll do something else. I'm quite self aware, and this is probably what I should have done when I first lost her. Grieved and taken some time. So here I am. I have no expectations of her walking through that door."

"I hope not. Who knows what's on the other side of that door? Who knows how all that shit works? It's so much easier just being undead." We walked up the steps onto the porch, and I punched the security code into the door.

She followed me downstairs, and I tossed her a bag of blood bank blood. "No True Blood? God, that stuff was awful."

"No kidding. No, I avoid it at all costs, especially after the silver poisoning scare of 2063." That had been terrible. Almost killed the synthetic blood industry. Somehow, after issuing vampire made testing strips, it had made somewhat of a comeback, but vamps that could afford it never drank synthetic, even for show.

Pam chuckled. "Please. You've avoided it forever."

"True. I'm going to retire for the evening and do some reading. Make yourself at home." I'd been reading through the entire Oxford Worlds Classics catalogue. I'd read most of them, but it was interesting to read them again. Human literature was so droll at times, but I couldn't resist it.

"Goodnight, Eric." She picked up a magazine and put her feet up on my couch.

I checked the clock a little while later. It was only 3 a.m. I rolled over and flipped the television on. Lots of news, a minor war here and there. Things never changed.

I'd gone into downtime, when I was snapped out of it by Pam's screams. I grabbed my sword and whipped the door open, to see her, slack jawed in front of the monitors, red tears streaming down her face. She turned and looked at me. "You were right. Eric, you were right."

I pushed her aside, and dropped to my knees, as a dark haired man, and someone that was unmistakably Sookie Stackhouse appeared out of thin air, slammed the invisible door and started running.

**Sookie**

"Jesus Dave, run faster." I gripped his hand after we slammed the door and secured it the best we could. "Who the hell knows if they'll be able to follow."

"Where are we running to?" He gasped as I pulled him along.

There was no way I was going back. Not alive, or in any form of alive. It was here, or finally dead. Dave and I had both sworn that before we came through the door.

I hadn't thought that far ahead, not really. "Fangtasia."

"Back to your vampire? Seriously?" He slowed down a bit. "Sookie."

"He's not my vampire. He's _a_ vampire. And he'll be able to help."

"Why would he want to help?"

That was a good question. "Because I can help him, with my telepathy, if he keeps us safe." I just knew Eric would help. There was no way after all this time, that he'd turn me away, even if there was no way we were ever going to be together. Who knew if we would have ever been together? It was unlikely, and would have been most certainly short lived. What I did know though, was that he cared about me. I'd felt it that night, when Niall had taken me back to Faerie, half dead, when the bond had been severed. He'd fought it until he couldn't anymore. It was more than sex, with him and me. In all the time I'd had to think, I'd realized a lot of things. He was a friend to me, probably the best friend I ever had.

Dave stopped completely. "Sookie, I think we need a better plan than that."

We'd just spent so much time planning to get the hell out of Faerie, that it hadn't even crossed my mind what we'd do once we actually did. "What year do you think it is?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Shit." Did I still have a house? Did I know anyone? I'd thought for a long time that I didn't. I somehow knew that Eric would still be alive.

I hadn't told anyone about the dreams. There were rumours, whispers, that those who were not full fae were able to still communicate with those they knew before, through blood, on earth, but it wasn't something that was discussed. Full Fae were threatened by the idea of any part-humans, or faemans, as we were called, having any contact with the outside world. They needed us, to have their babies, and do the menial jobs that they thought they were too good for. It was hell. If the Christian ideal of heaven actually existed, I'd really wished that Niall had just let me die that day. "Well we have to start there. I don't know where else to start." And then I started to cry. Fuck, I was such a mess. This had been one hell of a week. It had all happened so quickly, Niall's death, getting married, and getting the fuck out of Faerie before the hundred year spell expired, and I was trapped there for another century.

I looked at Dave, and then collapsed on the ground. If they were going to catch us, then they were going to catch us, five minute break or not. He sat down beside me. "It's okay Sook. Hey, I got you." He wrapped an arm around me, and wiped the tears from my eyes.

I could tell him almost anything, but the turmoil I was feeling about being back, and even saying Eric's name, in a way that related to the present, and not the distant past, wasn't a kink I wanted to put into the giant mess we were already dealing with. Thirty years of sneaking around. We deserved a minute, just to be. "And I've got you."

He nodded, gave me a half smile, and kissed my forehead. I hadn't seen him smile in a long time. "Hey. We'll figure this out. We're free, Pokey, after all this time. The rest is just details."

I glared at him. "You can't call me that anymore."

"Why?" He chuckled. "It's cute."

"No it's not. It's lame." I'd gotten the nickname about five years ago, on the day of my second arranged marriage, when after twenty-five years of our very secret and outlawed relationship, Dave swooped in and killed husband number two, and we'd officially become outlaws. I couldn't run in the huge dress, and he'd called me that, after Gumby's little orange horse. I'd had one, so I knew what he meant immediately. I'd never been pokey again, but he still pulled it out quite often. It was good encouragement, and a reminder of what I was running from. The Fae that Niall had wanted to marry me off to was repulsive, and ancient, and the way he looked at me terrified the hell out of me. Niall hadn't spoken to me for a few years after that, but softened when his end was near.

"Pokey stands." He pulled me to my feet. "I like it."

"Fine. But try to come up with something cuter. It's not nice to compare your wife to a plastic horse." I punched him playfully.

He nodded, brushing the dirt off the back of my dress. "I'll think about it. Now show me how very un-pokey you are, and let's get the hell out of here."

* * *

**Wait! Before you hate me too much, take a deep breath, and trust me, this is an Eric and Sookie fic. ****That I can promise you. ****Say it with me, an Eric and Sookie fic. Eric and Sookie...feel better now?  
**

* * *

**A couple of things of note: I'm cohosting an AH contest for newbies and AH newbies! Check it out! www(DOT)fanfiction(DOT)net/u/2507718/A_New_Chapter_Contest**

**I also have a blog now, and I'm planning to start posting some original fiction, which I'd be ever so grateful if you checked out in a couple of weeks. The link to my blog is on my profile page, and The Expert is hosted there exclusively now. It also includes some rambling and ranting from me, so if you're interested, check it out!**


	5. When You're Gone

**Again, wow! You guys make me grin ear to ear every time I open my inbox with all your comments, and I didn't even get too much Dave hate! As I promised in the last chapter, this is an ERIC AND SOOKIE fic. That is all I can say, for now. Say it with me. Eric and Sookie.  
**

**You guys rock my socks, and a couple of you even noticed a few little nods that I've been throwing in, the most noticeable of course being Dracula, er, Vlad, who is as close to Night Huntress Vlad as I could manage. If you haven't read this series, what are you waiting for! There are a few more little shoutouts in upcoming chapters, to some of my fave fics, and people. See if you can find them!**

**Thanks as always to Missus T, who keeps me on my toes!**

* * *

**Sookie**

We started walking, and it wasn't long before I sensed two voids. I grabbed Dave's hand again, and stood on my tiptoes, and whispered in his ear, "I think there are vampires here. And close."

He looked around somewhat frantically. Dave had no vampire experience. He'd been surrounded by Fae as a kid. "Where?"

"Not right here. But close. They're moving fast."

And then I was tackled to the ground by Pam. She, of course, hadn't aged a day. But then again, neither had I. I looked up at her briefly, before Eric pulled her off of me, and I scrambled back, against Dave's legs.

"Pam, do not drain her." He said, quickly, before wrapping me up in his arms and laying a kiss on me, the likes of which I'd certainly not felt for a hundred years. A thousand years of kissing skill was not something easily forgotten. I kissed back at first, feeling the bond re-ignite like a struck match. First a spark, and then a full on flame. "My Lover." He whispered in a way that made my toes curl.

And then I remembered my husband was standing right behind me. Behind us. "Eric, no." I smacked at him, a few times, before he put me down. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here." He said, before pinning Dave up against a tree, quite savagely. "Who is this? Has he harmed you?"

This was hard. Harder than I'd imagined it being, even after a hundred years, and he wasn't even my boyfriend then. Why the hell was it so hard? "This is Dave. My husband." Dave knew all about Eric. It wasn't really fair that he knew nothing about Dave.

Eric looked at Pam in a way that broke my heart before dropping him. "I am your husband," he said, almost too low for me to hear.

"I think the statute of limitations ran out on that a long time ago, and I did leave this dimension." I knew I sounded cruel, but I also knew he hadn't been sitting around pining for me either. There was no way he had. "Eric, I didn't think I'd be able to get back, and what were we to each other even, then?"

Dave, who had taken all of this in but admittedly had no experience with vampires, finally spoke. "Look, Eric," his voice was wavering. Although Eric wasn't much taller than him, he was certainly more intimidating, especially with his fangs out, and they were very out. Dave had this great goofy quality to him, which was one of the things I loved about him. That, and the fact that I couldn't hear him. And he was also a telepath. "I love her, and we've gone to the ends of the world to be back here so we can actually be together, without being thrown in Fae jail, or tortured, or forced to create a few more mostly Fae babies with Fae that we hate." He took a step back from him. "You had your chance, and from what I've heard, you blew it."

I glared at him. I'd never said that. "Dave."

He shrugged. "What? He did leave you to die, did he not?"

I nodded, sadly. Niall had simply told me that he was unable to come. That was all. I knew it was more than that, hoped it was more, but after all this time, it didn't really matter. We all stared at each other, silent, for quite some time. "Eric, we can't go back." To Faerie, or to a hundred years ago.

"And I cannot help you," he hissed, angry. Of course he was angry. "Because you do not trust me."

Pam sighed in exasperation. "Eric, go back to the house. Please."

He glared at all of us before he stalked off, at vampire speed. I could hear the door slam, even though we were quite far out in the woods. Had be bought Gran's house? "Pam, what the hell?"

"Sookie Stackhouse, for someone that used to be quite human, you're all Fae now, aren't you?" She walked around me, and from her tone, I knew that it wasn't meant as a compliment. The way she said Fae was quite accusatory. "He's been pining for you for nearly a decade, and you've occupied his thoughts for far longer. You didn't have the dreams?"

I looked back at Dave, who was clearly flabbergasted by all of this. "Dave, take a walk."

Pam nodded. "The house is that way. He won't hurt you, just stay out of his way."

He shrugged and started walking. "I guess drained is probably better than the alternative." Yes, things were that bad. He wasn't exaggerating. Being drained was a great alternative to life in a Fae jail.

I sat down, my back against an old tree. "How many years has it been here?"

Pam raised her eyebrows, before sitting down beside me."A hundred. Exactly. How many for you?"

"A hundred."

Pam looked at me curiously. "And you haven't aged."

"I drank the Kool-Aid." Lots and lots of the water. I wasn't sure what the effects would be now that I was back, but I certainly hadn't aged there. "Where are your pants?"

"No one wears pants anymore." She laughed. "So you're Fae, then. You smell like Fae. And for the record, I had no desire to drain you. I was simply pleased to see you."

I hugged her, tight, and oddly enough, she hugged back. "I'm not all Fae. You mentioned the dreams. He had the dreams?"

She nodded. "Yes."

My best and worst fears confirmed.I put my head in my hands. For the last few decades, I'd wondered if it was possible. They were unlike the other dreams I had which, for years, had been of my torture at the hands of Thing One and Thing Two, whom I soon found out, were quite similar to many other Fae. "All of them?"

"I would imagine." She shrugged. "He had a lot of them. I could always tell, because he'd have this look in his eye, when he'd get up. The same one he had when he was cursed. Baffled, but happy."

"I don't know Pam. What do I do here?"

She cocked her head at me. "Do you love the mostly human?"

I loved Dave more than I'd ever thought it was possible to love anyone. The amount of shit we'd been through, both separately, and collectively, over the last thirty years was both incredible and horrifying to even think about, let alone to have lived through. We'd killed for one another, carried each other when we couldn't walk any further, starved so the other could eat. The last five years had not been easy, not by any means. "Very much."

"Then Eric will deal with it, but you'll have to understand, he may not deal with it well."

"Pam, it's not like he waited for me. He thought I was dead."

Her face tensed, slightly. "Do you know what happened, after you left?"

"Of course not. I was dead, or there. I didn't exactly ask questions." Niall had been very hush hush about the whole thing. One minute Bill had been kneeling over my body, and the next minute, I was surrounded by beautiful men and women dancing. It had been slightly bizarre.

"Bill is dead. Victor is dead. Eric was almost dead, every morning for three years. We left, after that."

"Bill is dead?" I'd dreamt about that, but I had no idea why.

"He burned your house down in the process. Idiot." She picked at her nails. "Anyway, blah blah, lives destroyed, blah."

"My house is gone?"

"Like a hundred years ago. Get with the program." She sighed. "Sookie, I don't know what this will do to him. Looking for you has given him a purpose, of sorts. I don't know what will happen now."

"Pam, I can't leave my husband, for someone I haven't seen in a hundred years who never even told me he loved me. And he didn't come for me. He could have prevented all of this, and he didn't. Because of stupid vamp politics. What is he now? King of North America?"

"Eric is nothing now. He's Eric. And for the record, he couldn't come for you. Let's get that out of the way." She fished something out of her tiny purse, and handed it to me. "I saved these, on the off chance that this ever came up again."

It was a phone, or a camera, or something. "I don't know how to work this."

She rolled her eyes. "Look."

With a press of a button, she'd created a projection of sorts into the night sky. Pictures of Eric, life sized, chained in silver, cursing someone who I thought was Victor Madden. I hadn't thought of him in a long time. "Is that that night?"

"Yes, Sookie. Neither of us could go. We called Bill. How did you think he ended up there?" She rolled her eyes. "It's not like we would have sent Bill, unless there was no one else."

I hadn't thought about it. I'd just been abandoned, left to die by the one person who had always protected me. "Oh."

"So you'll see why he perhaps has some objections to your claim of abandonment."

I could feel him through the bond, and it was devastating. I'd never felt anything like that coming from him, before. Not even the night I'd been taken by Lochlan and Neave. "I guess I should talk to him."

"Perhaps." She rolled her eyes. "I don't know what you'll say though."

Neither did I.

We walked back to the house, which although from the outside resembled Gran's old house, now looked like an ultra chic bachelor pad on the inside with leather furniture and an ultra modern feel. It was quite shocking to see through the windows. "So he fixed the burned down house?" I asked Pam.

She shook her head. "No. The house was long gone. He rebuilt completely about ten years ago, when he found the door."

"He found the door?"

"With Corrina."

"Who?"

"Vlad's child. She's lovely. I think you'd quite like her."

"What?" I had no idea what she was talking about.

Pam rolled her eyes. "I'll write you out the cliffnotes, sometime. Maybe you'll meet her. I don't know." She stomped up the stairs.

Dave was sitting on the porch, looking up at the stars. "I didn't go inside."

"Probably a good call." I leaned in and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "I need to talk to him."

He glanced at Pam. "A minute please?" She nodded, going inside.

I sighed. "I'm sorry about all this."

"Don't worry. I'm not bowing out, even with your crazy vampire friends." He pulled me onto his lap. "We'll get through this."

I nodded. We looked at each other for a minute. "You can hear them, can't you?" I'd just known somehow, from his reactions to things. His telepathy was much stronger than mine, even though we could both just read Faemans in Faerie.

He sighed. "Yea."

"I can't." And I was glad. So glad. That was the last thing I needed. "Don't say anything."

He shook his head. "I wasn't planning on it."

I pulled myself up. "I'll be back in a bit. Want me to send Pam out for company?"

"No." He winked. "I'm not good with vampires."

"Maybe you'll get better." I ran my fingers through his hair, before kissing his cheek. "Back soon."

I walked in the house, which was as strange from the inside. It was lovely, just so weird to see the room configuration in completely different materials, like steel and shiny hardwood instead of the worn floorboards that I remembered. Pam nodded to where the cellar door used to be, and I went down to find Eric sprawled out on a huge L-shaped couch. I sat on the far end, my hands in my lap. "Hi."

"I don't want to talk to you." He stared straight ahead.

"I want to talk to you, though." I sighed. "I owe you an apology."

"For what?" He wasn't looking at me.

"For not trusting that you would have come for me if you could have. For showing up here looking for you, because I was looking for you. I didn't know you were looking for me. For being with someone else, and just expecting you to deal with it. And for the dreams."

He glanced over at me. "They were just dreams."

It wasn't fair to tell him what I wanted to, but I had to say it. "No they weren't. Not to me. When I was making replacement babies for all the Fae whose deaths I was responsible for, and married off to a man I hated looking at, let alone sleeping with, the few nights I shared with you were really all that kept me going, even if they weren't real. Although it seems they were, now. I missed being here. I missed this life so much, even if it was completely fucked up while I was living it. I missed you and Pam, and your crazy vampire politics, because at least, in some small way, I was in control of my own destiny, even if that meant relinquishing my life to you sometimes."

He sat up, somewhat stiffly. "Sookie, I cannot change what has happened."

"Neither can I."

"I'll leave tomorrow." He nodded, slightly.

"No. It's your house."

He shook his head. "No. It's yours."

After about twenty minutes of silence, I finally got up, retrieved Dave from the porch, and found my old room, which now looked it belonged in some hotel that I would never have been able to afford in the past. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the very comfortable pillow.

True to his word, Eric packed up, and was gone at dusk. Dave had tried to shake his hand, and thank him for leaving and giving us a house, but he was uninterested, ignoring him completely. Pam left with a shrug and a smile, and another unexpected, but welcome hug. "I'll be in touch."

And then we were left there, Dave and I, wondering what the hell had happened, and what was next for us.

* * *

**I've moved the rest of this fic (which is complete) to my blog because this website likes to pull things at random, and I'm not in support of that. You can read the rest at seastarr08 dot wordpress dot com.  
**


End file.
